Teenager found dead in Columbia apartment

CRIME WATCH

May 22, 2007|By MELISSA HARRIS

A 19-year-old man was found dead in a Columbia townhouse late yesterday afternoon in an apparent homicide, Howard County police said.

The body of Tray Allen was found in a residence in the 5200 block of Brook Way, near his home in the same block of the complex known as the Berkshires. Responding to a 5:20 p.m. call to the Baltimore County dispatch center reported that someone might be injured inside the residence, Howard County officers approached the home from the rear and saw what appeared to be blood, police said, adding that there was no sign of forced entry to the residence.

The cause of Allen's death was uncertain last night. His body was to be taken to the state medical examiner's office after forensic work at the scene was completed last night, police said.

FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's editions misspelled the first name of Trae D. Allen, who was found dead in a Columbia townhouse Monday.The Sun regrets the errors.

The complex is near the scene of a still-unsolved killing last month in the Running Brook neighborhood, where a 40-year-old woman from Belarus was fatally shot in the 7-Eleven store in the 5700 block of Columbia Road, where she was working. The convenience-store killing was the county's second homicide this year.

Anyone with information that might be related to Allen's death was urged to call police at 410-313-3200.